Hyderabad: The Hyderabad district consumer forum has sentenced M.R. Venkat Reddy, a builder from Malani Enclave, Secunderabad Cantonment Board, to jail for two years and fined Rs 10,000 after a Trimulgherry resident, Mr N. Harshada, complained against him.
The builder was not paying heed to the several service-related issues in the property and important documents were not handed over to the owner, when the new owner wanted to check whether the permissions were obtained properly from the board or not.
Mr Harshada had purchased a flat in Trimulgherry, Secunderabad Cantonment, in 2010 from the builder. Even after continuously pursuing the matter with the builder, the service issues were not addressed and documents like sanction plan were not handed over. He said the complainant was forced to pay additional amount of Rs 8,000 every month since he was unable to move the home loan to a PSU or private banks as the revised sanctioned plan was not available.
Earlier, a complaint was lodged with the Trimulgherry police under Section 420 as the builder had cheated the owners by mentioning in the sale deed that the building was constructed as per sanctioned plan but the owners got to know that it was not so.
The builder was not willing to provide the documents to the owners.
Mr Venkata Ramana, a city-based RTI activist, said, “There have been similar cases in the SCB with most of the buildings, as the builders start constructing without obtaining permission and many residents who buy these flats buildings fall into a trap.”
Mr Harshada said, “After a long struggle of eight years, we got justice finally but the respondent has got bail. We are now going for appeal in the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (SCDRC) and only God knows how long the struggle will continue.”
